Friday, September 25, 2009

Fun in BC (part 2)

* Wednesday we spent the day in Vancouver. We barely made the ferry, it was raining but I was excited. The ride over was not what I expected; the ferry is kinda like a floating airport lounge.

Our first stop in Vancouver was The Daiso! Which totally deserves an exclamation point! It was completely awesome and fun and when I live up there will require at least 2 trips a year. For my ghoulish gals I got a fake gory brain and fake gory ear - that's right, even at a Japanese dollar store in Vancouver I head straight for the Halloween stuff. They are deliciously gooey. I also got some play money, dish towels, colored ballpoint pens, a couple of notebooks, embroidery thread (in fall colors) and a id badge holder. Yeah, they have everything. Only the size of my suitcase (and my wallet) limited my purchases. They have kitchen containers that are so specialized - one for yakisoba, one for marinating tofu, one for edamame, one for rice cakes ...

Afterwards, we walked around the rest of the mall. Aberdeen Centre is in Richmond, which has a big Asian population, so the stores were amazing. There's even a Ferrari dealership in there!

After a bit of driving around we got hungry, so we went to Moderne Burger (which came highly recommended by Lisa). What a groovy joint! The menu is simple: burgers, fries and shakes are the focus. Glen got a creamsicle shake and I got the chocolate covered cherry. They give you the shake in a proper old-fashioned glass AND give you the leftovers in a metal cup - these folks know what they are doing. I got a turkey burger but Glen went for the steak burger, and he definately won in the flavor department. We got one order of fries between us and it was more than enough, as you can see.

Thus satiated, Glen played tour guide once again and drove me around different parts of Vancouver: across the Lions Gate Bridge, through Stanley Park and through some of downtown. I look forward to going back for a long weekend and exploring!

The final stop on our whirlwind tour was Ikea! I've never been to one (the closest one to me is 6 hours away, either Atlanta or Orlando) so it was a treat. Once again my suitcase limited my purchases to a couple pairs of rubber gloves and a squeegee, but I spent plenty in my mind. And it gave Glen and me a good chance to discuss future decorating ideas: he's a neutrals kind of guy and I'm a fan of theme decor, but I think we can successfully combine the two :)

The ride home was ... interesting, to say the least. SO interesting that I'll hand the mike over to Glen to tell that story. :makes shooing motion with hand: